Phosphating Industrial Process Optimization by Discrete Events Simulation and Deterministic Times

Discrete Simulation (SD) importance in the analysis of processes is shown at this work, a methodological proposal is presented to achieve the phosphating process optimization of automotive parts. The problem is to handle the materials through an automated traveling crane, since the product is transported by containers along the production line, and the crane has to wait all the process times at each stage, causing many dead times and low process efficiency. By the use of just a container, the equipment has a utilization of 21.8% at the most critical degreasing stage, indicating a low resources use. Was proposed to analyze the production by using Discrete Simulation, increasing the number of simultaneously containers used in process, so the crane could make automatically movements, respecting the process times. Some process variables were analyzed such as: % Production Increase (% AP), % Equipment Use (% EU), % Leisure Time (% TO) and % Waiting Transport Time (% TE). The results indicate a significant improvement in the process variables, obtaining the best results with four containers, achieving a % increase in the equipment use that reaches the 79.5% compared to the previously 21.8% mentioned. This process improvement represents a 372% production increase respecting to its initial production, and other significant improvements in all the considered variables.